Lava Engine – In Limbo (2010)

In a day that almost everybody is doing what has worked for somebody else, playing it safe and avoiding any kind of creativity seems to be the typical approach ‘new’ bands take to making music. Luckily for us Lava Engine actually tries to craft their own unique sound and actually manage to create pretty solid compositions with intricate musical palettes that sound very well when mixed in together.

Hailing from Sweden, Lava Engine brilliantly merges Progressive Metal elements with some ‘Symphonic’ elements and creates a very uniquely sounding Experimental Metal sound that many bands will surely envy. The band’s combination of powerful riffs, keyboard arrangements, and well crafted vocal lines, carries their second EP “In Limbo” from start till finish and hopefully lands them a record deal.

Featuring five songs in “In Limbo”, the band wastes no time in showcasing their abilities with the highly diverse and first song “Drain Your Soul”. Here the band uses catchy riffs paired with powerful vocal lines to grab the listener, and then surprise him with some guitar wizardry on the solo section. Following up we have the EP title song and the band really showcases their full sound on this piece, going a bit heavier but still utilizing keyboard arrangements and very good vocal section.

In “Common Ground” the band goes all out and uses probably the best rhythmical section of the whole EP paired with another brilliant solo. They also use their best and catchiest vocal lines, making you repeat them over and over in your head once you stop listening to this song (trust us, you will!). “Ctrl Z” goes into a more Proggy/Experimental area but does feel a bit chaotic and disconnected, the musicianship is perfectly fine, but the song feels a bit convoluted and needs more work.

To close the EP we have “Windows Closed”, another hard rocking song that also feels a bit weak compared to the first 3 songs, but has some nice sections that give it a nice proggy/psychedelic feeling. This pretty much saved the song for us and makes it quite enjoyable.

In general Lave Engine has what it takes to make good music and get people’s attention. The band’s sound is very diverse and fresh and will surely have to no trouble in appealing to the Progressive Metal/Rock community. We feel that some songs (last two) needed some work, but with time this band can only get better. Highly recommended release for people looking for well made music that has a unique sound to it.

Release: 2010

Country: Sweden